Atomistic-continuum modeling of short laser pulse melting of Si targets

TL;DR

This paper develops an atomistic-continuum model to simulate ultrashort laser pulse melting in silicon, revealing the interplay of heterogeneous and homogeneous melting mechanisms influenced by laser-induced stresses.

Contribution

The study introduces a combined atomistic-continuum model for laser melting in semiconductors, highlighting the role of internal stresses and phase nucleation mechanisms.

Findings

Homogeneous melting can occur rapidly within picoseconds due to internal stresses.

Negative volume change during melting influences the melting pathway.

Threshold fluence for homogeneous nucleation was identified.

Abstract

We present an atomistic-continuum model to simulate ultrashort laser-induced melting processes in semiconductor solids on the example of silicon. The kinetics of transient non-equilibrium phase transition mechanisms is addressed with a Molecular Dynamics method at atomic level, whereas the laser light absorption, strong generated electron-phonon non-equilibrium, fast diffusion and heat conduction due to photo-excited free carriers are accounted for in the continuum. We give a detailed description of the model, which is then applied to study the mechanism of short laser pulse melting of free standing Si films. The effect of laser-induced pressure and temperature of the lattice on the melting kinetics is investigated. Two competing melting mechanisms, heterogeneous and homogeneous, were identified. Apart of classical heterogeneous melting mechanism, the nucleation of the liquid phase homogeneously inside the material significantly contributes to the melting process. The simulations showed, that due to the open diamond structure of the crystal, the laser-generated internal compressive stresses reduce the crystal stability against the homogeneous melting. Consequently, the latter can take a massive character within several picoseconds upon the laser heating. Due to negative volume of melting of modeled Si material, -7.5%, the material contracts upon the phase transition, relaxes the compressive stresses and the subsequent melting proceeds heterogeneously until the excess of thermal energy is consumed. The threshold fluence value, at which homogeneous nucleation of liquid starts contributing to the classical heterogeneous propagation of the solid-liquid interface, is found from the series of simulations at different laser input fluences. On the example of Si, the laser melting kinetics of semiconductors was found to be noticeably different from that of metals with fcc crystal structure.